im thinking it was gang related :)

They said that there were no injuries after the 2008 explosion, yet one employee had to have surgery and was off work for months after being thown to ground in the blast. Worksafe better keep a close eye on them before there is a fatality.


ewitt

Three times in three years. Hmmm, Makes you wonder why. Probably improper cleaning, Letting dust an crap pile up. Too worried about production, and leaving custodial work secondary.

Wonder how much that plant affects our air quality? The posties who work there always have dust covering their cars.

You know, kaboom and the air quality goes to kaput. hmmmm i wonder if it is a related issue.

If the postal workers knew what the real emissions of the plant were the s*** would really hit the fan.

If the postal workers knew what the real emissions of the plant were the s*** would really hit the fan.

So tell us truewitt what are the "real emissions"??????????? I am sure everybody who works out in the industrial site would like to know too!

Formaldehyde, the glue to hold the pellets together????? That would be interesting.

The "glue" that holds the pellets together is the lignin in the wood. I believe they may add some if there is not enough in the feedstock that will act as a binder under pressure and heat.

http://purelignin.com/lignin

There is formaldehyde in wood, but I doubt they would add any. Formaldehyde based binders are used in fibreboard and plywood. Even that will change from one location to another. I know that some or all European countries are quite strict about the use of formaldehyde in building product. The Netherlands used to be the strictest some 15 years ago when I was exploring those issues.

As a former operator of a different pellet plant I can tell you there is nothing added to the fiber before it is made into pellets.
I also would like to say that the whole idea of air quality testing is a farce!!!
The company gets notification prior to testing,and it is all based on a parts per-million basis,so if you don't pass the test then all you do is add a fresh air fan at the base of the stack and double the air flow, and you now have cut your ppm in half presto -----same amount of crap twice as much air LMAO

I second you druid... There isnt any chemicals that hold the pellets together. Its the moisture content and natural glues in the wood that does this while being forced under great pressure in a pelletizer.. The actually pelletizing process isnt much of a differnt concept than a spaghetti maker or meat grinder...

As well what usually causes fires at a pellet plant are the same causes that start fires in a sawmill cyclone system.. Spark from a over heated bearing ect ect...

The most common fire starter in a pellent is running dirty feed stock which either has gravel in it peices of metal or sand..During the drying process and pelletizing process it doesnt take much to iginite a spark from a forgien object or from a silica melt as a result of the sand which makes its way in...
Its more of a complex process than just sending planer shavings and hog fuel into a pelletizer and making pellets. Most of the problem of trying to desing a high production pellet plant is trying to design to avoid explosions.

holy crap... my spelling sucks this morning hahaha...havent had the coffee yet.

Druid - remember air pumps on cars in the 80's - same theory. Put on a parasitic drag that actually worsens mileage but hey, the ppm is down so it must all be good.